Arguably the greatest result Northern Ireland have ever achieved at Windsor Park came from a goal from Belfast’s own Ian Stewart, who said recently: “I just went in and played like I did at Belvoir Primary School.” Just four months earlier West Germany had been defeated in a World Cup final in Spain in a tournament that Billy Bingham’s side were also involved in.

Billed as the hosts’ revenge game following their reverse in Belfast one year earlier, Northern Ireland achieved what Bingham thought was the best result of his long spell in charge of the country. Norman Whiteside scored the game’s only goal for a team also featuring current boss Michael O’Neill’s number two Jimmy Nicholl, who also played in the return fixture in Belfast.

A famous Northern Irish victory looked to be on the cards when Michael Hughes put the hosts ahead on the hour mark. Enter Oliver Bierhoff with 21 minutes to go. Within 10 minutes, his hat-trick had changed the game. The gap between the first and third goals was a world record six minutes as the home side were ruthlessly put away by the man whose double clinched Euro 1996 success the previous summer.

Another Bierhoff strike, this one in the third minute, set the Germans on their way before Christian Ziege, a one-time Liverpool and Tottenham utility man, scored a treble himself to inflict another heavy defeat on Northern Ireland. All of the goals came before the interval in Dortmund, but there was to be no further misery for the travelling Northern Irish contingent in the second period.

Northern Ireland 1 Germany 4 (Belfast, friendly, June 4, 2005)

On what was meant to be a night to celebrate the Irish Football Association’s 125th anniversary, Robert Huth left the party 15 minutes in having been sent off for a deliberate handball. David Healy converted the penalty but the one-man advantage mattered little as Germany fought back and stuck four past a Northern Ireland side which included international debutant Gareth McAuley.